The Journal. How ICE Went From Deport… to Airport
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Mar 25, 2026 
Michelle Hackman, a Wall Street Journal reporter on immigration and federal policy, unpacks the airport security mess during the shutdown. They dig into why TSA lines exploded, how ICE officers ended up at airports, the talk radio idea that reached Trump, and how airport chaos reshaped the fight in Washington over DHS funding.
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How DHS Politics Turned TSA Into Shutdown Collateral
- TSA’s post-9/11 centralization made airport security a direct casualty of shutdown politics inside DHS.
- Michelle Hackman says Democrats tied DHS funding to limits on ICE masks and warrantless home entries, and Republicans refused.
Why ICE Could Work While TSA Went Unpaid
- Long TSA lines stemmed from unpaid screeners calling out, while ICE stayed deployable because Congress had already given it multiyear deportation money.
- Michelle Hackman says some airports saw call-out rates near 40%, and ICE funding runs until 2029 outside normal annual appropriations.
The Talk Radio Call That Became Airport Policy
- The ICE-at-airports plan appears to have leapt from conservative talk radio to presidential policy within days.
- Linda from Arizona pitched it to Clay Travis, he repeated it on Fox, then Trump posted nearly the same idea and claimed it was his.